Do not adjust your computer, iPhone, Ipad or Tablet? screens…this is seriously what they released to the world! But alas, the many Gap enthusiasts, my wife included, quickly made a mockery of the company’s feeble and epic failed attempt to “refresh” their now iconic mark.

If you know me then you know I am going to squeeze the conspiracy out of this story, if for nothing other than making us all think.

Many of us are more than likely going to be inclined to cough this up as a foolish corporate mistake. But is it really? Gap has been a company known to be in financial turmoil. Dwindling stocks stemming from less than impressive year-end financial reports were the perfect contributing ingredients to an impending disaster. Just last year alone the company lost an estimate 2.3% when comparing their previous years revenue, which was also down from the previous year.  If you ask me, this massive sales deficit was not only a side effect of the fledgling economy, but spoke to the fact of the company’s diminshing brand presence. It was a matter of time until a “More Panic” meeting was called.

People always say to themselves, “I wish I was a fly on the wall in that meeting”. Well folks, I spoke to a fly, who spoke to a fly, who heard it on the grapevine, who claims she heard it from Cathy, about what went on…and here is how he thinks it went down”…

“Hear ye, hear ye”… well maybe not, but I have always wanted to start a meeting off like that.

“So what do we do?”…asks the guy sitting at the end of the table, donned in his red and blue neck-tie, white Armani dress-shirt (the irony kills me), Armani reading glasses and $1500 boots (we assume the rest of his outfit is pretty standard…except for his watch which can buy both you and I a brand new house…or feed a hundred starving families, whichever one makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside).

“We shake things up!”…says the marketing director.

“We change our prices and our line”

“Tried that before!”…says Armani suite…

“Well…hmmmm…ok how about we change our brand?”

“I don’t think that is a good idea, people are comfortable with our brand…it will cost us too much money and frankly I am going on vacation at the end of the month and don’t need the headache. Any other ideas?”..says Armani suit

The intern raises her hand, me..me…me

“Anybody else?”

“me…me..me!”

“Fine, Lindsay what do you think?”

“Why don’t we just pretend to change our brand. I will create a logo with my mediocre at best Photoshop skills, and then we can release it at midnight tonight. That way we can generate some press and hope to not lose our shirts…get it?”

“I don’t know”… say the now overpaid marketing director…”that is a silly idea!”

“What do we have to lose? Sales and credibility?… we have already lost those by releasing those stupid looking skinny jeans”…says Armani suit

“Lindsay, you are a genius. Do it!”

We flash forward through panic, disgust, laughter, ridicule and back-tracking, only to find Gap at the fore-front of every news media, trying to explain away what happened with their “failed attempt to release their new logo”.

While we all point and laugh at what a gigantic failure that it was, I must sit back and ask myself…

WAS IT?…WAS IT REALLY?

Look how much these people love your website! Thank you web metrics!!

With so many web metrics tools out there, it’s not easy to understand or choose how to measure your web success. If you feel like you need a dictionary to even get started, you’re not alone. Plenty of bloggers and websites out there are saying the same thing.

Successful businesses know their markets and the people who interact with their brand. Learning exactly how people are interacting will better assist you in the marketing of your business.

When considering web metrics, here are 6 key important considerations that should not be overlooked.

1. Know the variety of metrics available to you.

If words like Web Counter, Hits, Browser Platform, Pageviews, Visits, or Operating Systems mean nothing to you, then the time has come for you to learn. Web metrics will help you to understand where your site visitors are coming from, how their search led them to your site and what they are engaging in on your site. There are lots of different ways in which to analyze this information so it is key to know about them all.

2. Choose your key words carefully.

Certain key words in a search will lead high numbers of visitors to your site. But are they the people you want? Most of the time, driving the right people to your site is more important than driving a completely diverse audience to your site.

3.  Get to your Audience to the Point.

Every website has a goal. Make your website easy to navigate. If you are selling a product, then sell the product right away. Don’t make your audience search the page too hard. Usability is key. The trick is to monitor how well your ad copy and website layout work together to make that sale. Web metrics will monitor what’s working and what’s not.

When you know what’s working and what’s not working on your site, you are then prepared to make the right changes to the site. Don’t be afraid to keep making changes until your site is a success.

4. Analyze Audience Behavior

So you are getting the right people to your site. Great. But nothing seems to be happening. It is very important to understand what your audience is doing on your website. If they completely miss the most important part of your website, then not only was their visit unsuccessful, but the odds of them returning to the site go down significantly.

Watch what is happening during their visit. Where do they spend the most time? Where are they not going at all? The answers to these questions are key.

5. If you don’t want to monitor EVERYTHING, make sure you monitor these 7 metrics…

There are a ton of metrics out there and it’s hard to make a website perfect. So make it as perfect as you can and use metrics that cater to what you care about knowing the most. If you want a quick summary of your website success, filter down what you need to know: Bounce Rate, Attention, Conversions, Spend, Errors, Online Search Terms, Bailout Rate.

These metrics will give you the best overall perception of your site.

6. If it aint broke, don’t fix it. But if it is broke, maybe just improve it a little.

So your metrics have told you that no one has clicked through to the most important part of your website. You have already spent lots of time making this particular section of your site perfect. Surely, you thought, this would be the key to boosting business. Well it wasn’t because no one has taken the time to click through to see it.

Now you are left with two options: develop or remove. If you decide this website feature needs to be improved, then brainstorm process begins again. Think about what is missing. Why are people not clicking through? What will it take to encourage click-throughs? Look around on other sites and pay close attention to how it draws you in. Where is your eye drawn to and why? Studying other sites and applying this knowledge to your site will other further enhance your own audiences’ experience on your site.

Or on second thought, maybe you are just thinking that you should delete this non-functioning feature all-together. If what is not working on your site is not worth the effort to fix, then delete it. This won’t necessarily hurt your website because it will only make it easier to navigate. A user-friendly, clean layout is always a good choice. Too much clutter hurts a website’s functionality. Whether the decision is to improve or delete, the important thing here is that a change has been made based on web metrics feedback.